Miscellany

Jai Ganesh · 2024-12-13 16:49:25

2276) Gastroenteritis

Gist

Gastroenteritis means inflammation in your stomach and intestine. Inflammation makes these organs feel swollen and sore. It causes symptoms of illness, like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Gastroenteritis often happens when you get an infection in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Summary

Gastroenteritis is an acute infectious syndrome of the stomach lining and the intestine. It is characterized by diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. Other symptoms can include nausea, fever, and chills. The severity of gastroenteritis varies from a sudden but transient attack of diarrhea to severe dehydration.

Numerous viruses, bacteria, and parasites can cause gastroenteritis. Microorganisms cause gastroenteritis by secreting toxins that stimulate excessive water and electrolyte loss, thereby causing watery diarrhea, or by directly invading the walls of the gut, triggering inflammation that upsets the balance between the absorption of nutrients and the secretion of wastes.

Viral gastroenteritis, or viral diarrhea, is perhaps the most common type of diarrhea worldwide; rotaviruses, caliciviruses, Norwalk viruses, and adenoviruses are the most common causes. Other forms of gastroenteritis include food poisoning, cholera, and traveler’s diarrhea, which develops within a few days after traveling to a country or region that has unsanitary water or food. Traveler’s diarrhea is caused by exposure to enterotoxin-producing strains of the common intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli.

Details

Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea, is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Fever, lack of energy, and dehydration may also occur. This typically lasts less than two weeks. Although it is not related to influenza, in the U.S. and U.K., it is sometimes called the "stomach flu".

Gastroenteritis is usually caused by viruses; however, gut bacteria, parasites, and fungi can also cause gastroenteritis. In children, rotavirus is the most common cause of severe disease. In adults, norovirus and Campylobacter are common causes. Eating improperly prepared food, drinking contaminated water or close contact with a person who is infected can spread the disease. Treatment is generally the same with or without a definitive diagnosis, so testing to confirm is usually not needed.

For young children in impoverished countries, prevention includes hand washing with soap, drinking clean water, breastfeeding babies instead of using formula, and proper disposal of human waste. The rotavirus vaccine is recommended as a prevention for children. Treatment involves getting enough fluids. For mild or moderate cases, this can typically be achieved by drinking oral rehydration solution (a combination of water, salts and sugar). In those who are breastfed, continued breastfeeding is recommended. For more severe cases, intravenous fluids may be needed. Fluids may also be given by a nasogastric tube. Zinc supplementation is recommended in children. Antibiotics are generally not needed. However, antibiotics are recommended for young children with a fever and bloody diarrhea.

In 2015, there were two billion cases of gastroenteritis, resulting in 1.3 million deaths globally. Children and those in the developing world are affected the most. In 2011, there were about 1.7 billion cases, resulting in about 700,000 deaths of children under the age of five. In the developing world, children less than two years of age frequently get six or more infections a year. It is less common in adults, partly due to the development of immunity.

Signs and symptoms

Gastroenteritis usually involves both diarrhea and vomiting. Sometimes, only one or the other is present. This may be accompanied by abdominal cramps. Signs and symptoms usually begin 12–72 hours after contracting the infectious agent. If due to a virus, the condition usually resolves within one week. Some viral infections also involve fever, fatigue, headache and muscle pain. If the stool is bloody, the cause is less likely to be viral and more likely to be bacterial. Some bacterial infections cause severe abdominal pain and may persist for several weeks.

Children infected with rotavirus usually make a full recovery within three to eight days. However, in poor countries treatment for severe infections is often out of reach and persistent diarrhea is common. Dehydration is a common complication of diarrhea. Severe dehydration in children may be recognized if the skin color and position returns slowly when pressed. This is called "prolonged capillary refill" and "poor skin turgor". Abnormal breathing is another sign of severe dehydration. Repeat infections are typically seen in areas with poor sanitation, and malnutrition. Stunted growth and long-term cognitive delays can result.

Reactive arthritis occurs in 1% of people following infections with Campylobacter species. Guillain–Barré syndrome occurs in 0.1%. Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) may occur due to infection with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli or Shigella species. HUS causes low platelet counts, poor kidney function, and low red blood cell count (due to their breakdown). Children are more predisposed to getting HUS than adults. Some viral infections may produce benign infantile seizures.

Additional Information

Gastroenteritis is when your stomach and intestines are irritated and inflamed. This can cause belly pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The cause is typically inflammation triggered by your immune system's response to a viral or bacterial infection. However, infections caused by fungi or parasites or irritation from chemicals can also lead to gastroenteritis.

You may have heard the term "stomach flu." When people say this, they usually mean gastroenteritis caused by a virus. However, it's not actually related to the flu, or influenza, which is a different virus that affects your upper respiratory system (nose, throat, and lungs).

Gastroenteritis Symptoms

Gastroenteritis symptoms often start with little warning. You'll usually get nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. Expect to make several trips to the toilet in rapid succession. Other symptoms tend to develop a little later on and include:

* Belly pain
* Loss of appetite
* Chills
* Fatigue
* Body aches
* Fever

Because of diarrhea and vomiting, you also can become dehydrated. Watch for signs of dehydration, such as dry skin, a dry mouth, feeling lightheaded, and being really thirsty. Call your doctor if you have any of these symptoms.

How long does gastroenteritis last?

It depends on what caused it. But generally, acute gastroenteritis lasts about 14 days. Persistent gastroenteritis lasts between 14 and 30 days, and chronic gastroenteritis lasts over 30 days.

Stomach Flu and Children

Children and infants can get dehydrated quickly. If they do, they need to go to the doctor as soon as possible. Some signs of dehydration in kids include:

* Sunken soft spot on your baby's head
* Sunken eyes
* Dry mouth
* No tears come out when they cry
* Not peeing or peeing very little
* Low alertness and energy (lethargy)
* Irritability

When caused by an infection — most often a virus — gastroenteritis is contagious. Young kids are more likely to have severe symptoms. Keep children with gastroenteritis out of day care or school until all their symptoms are gone.

Two vaccines are available by mouth to help protect children from infection with one of the most common causes of viral gastroenteritis: rotavirus. The two vaccines are called RotaTeq and Rotarix. Kids can get them starting at 2 months of age. Ask your doctor if your child should get a vaccine.

Check with your doctor before giving your child any medicine. Doctors don't usually recommend giving kids younger than 5 years over-the-counter drugs to control vomiting. They also don't recommend giving kids younger than 12 drugs to control diarrhea (some doctors won't recommend them for people under 18).

Jai Ganesh · 2024-12-14 16:14:17

2277) Refinery/Oil Refinery - I

Gist

A refinery is a facility where raw materials are converted into some valuable substance by having impurities removed.

A refinery is a facility where raw materials are converted into some valuable substance by having impurities removed. At an oil refinery, crude oil is treated and made into gasoline and other petroleum products.

Whenever a material needs to have unwanted parts removed in order to be made into a useable product, it must be refined — clarified or processed. This is done at a plant called a refinery. A sugar refinery, for example, converts sugar cane or beets into familiar white, refined crystals of sugar. Refinery comes from refine, which is rooted in the now-obsolete verb fine, "make fine."

Summary

What do refineries do?

Petroleum refineries convert (refine) crude oil into petroleum products for use as fuels for transportation, heating, paving roads, and generating electricity and as feedstocks for making chemicals. Refining breaks crude oil down into its various components, which are then selectively reconfigured into new products.

A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.

Types of refineries

Different types of refineries are as follows:

* Petroleum oil refinery, which converts crude oil into high-octane motor spirit (gasoline/petrol), diesel oil, liquefied petroleum gases (LPG), kerosene, heating fuel oils, hexane, lubricating oils, bitumen, and petroleum coke
* Edible oil refinery which converts cooking oil into a product that is uniform in taste, smell and appearance, and stability
* Natural gas processing plant, which purifies and converts raw natural gas into residential, commercial and industrial fuel gas, and also recovers natural gas liquids (NGL) such as ethane, propane, butanes and pentanes
* Sugar refinery, which converts sugar cane and sugar beets into crystallized sugar and sugar syrups
* Salt refinery, which cleans common salt (NaCl), produced by the solar evaporation of sea water, followed by washing and re-crystallization
* Metal refineries refining metals such as alumina, copper, gold, lead, nickel, silver, uranium, zinc, magnesium and cobalt
* Iron refining, a stage of refining pig iron (typically grey cast iron to white cast iron), before fining, which converts pig iron into bar iron or steel.

Details

The refining process begins with crude oil.

Crude oil is unrefined liquid petroleum. Crude oil is composed of thousands of different chemical compounds called hydrocarbons, all with different boiling points. Science — combined with an infrastructure of pipelines, refineries, and transportation systems - enables crude oil to be transformed into useful and affordable products.

Refining turns crude oil into usable products.

Petroleum refining separates crude oil into components used for a variety of purposes. The crude petroleum is heated and the hot gases are passed into the bottom of a distillation column. As the gases move up the height of the column, the gases cool below their boiling point and condense into a liquid. The liquids are then drawn off the distilling column at specific heights to obtain fuels like gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel.

The liquids are processed further to make more gasoline or other finished products.

Some of the liquids undergo additional processing after the distillation process to create other products. These processes include: cracking, which is breaking down large molecules of heavy oils; reforming, which is changing molecular structures of low-quality gasoline molecules; and isomerization, which is rearranging the atoms in a molecule so that the product has the same chemical formula but has a different structure. These processes ensure that every drop of crude oil in a barrel is converted into a usable product.

What Is an Oil Refinery?

An oil refinery is an industrial plant that transforms, or refines crude oil into various usable petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, and heating oils like kerosene. Oil refineries essentially serve as the second stage in the crude oil production process following the actual extraction of crude oil up-stream, and refinery services are considered to be a down-stream segment of the oil and gas industry.

The first step in the refining process is distillation, where crude oil is heated at extreme temperatures to separate the different hydrocarbons.

Key Takeaways

* An oil refinery is a facility that takes crude oil and distills it into various useful petroleum products such as gasoline, kerosene, or jet fuel.
* Refining is classified as a downstream operation of the oil and gas industry, although many integrated oil companies will operate both extraction and refining services.
* Refineries and oil traders look to the crack spread, the relative difference in production cost and market price of various petroleum products in the derivatives market to hedge their exposure to crude oil prices.

Understanding Oil Refineries

Oil refineries serve an important role in the production of transportation and other fuels. The crude oil components, once separated, can be sold to different industries for a broad range of purposes. Lubricants can be sold to industrial plants immediately after distillation, but other products require more refining before reaching the final user. Major refineries have the capacity to process hundreds of thousand barrels of crude oil daily.

In the industry, the refining process is commonly called the "downstream" sector, while raw crude oil production is known as the "upstream" sector. The term downstream is associated with the concept that oil is sent down the product value chain to an oil refinery to be processed into fuel. The downstream stage also includes the actual sale of petroleum products to other businesses, governments, or private individuals.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. refineries produce—from a 42-gallon barrel of crude oil—19 to 20 gallons of motor gasoline, 11 to 12 gallons of distillate fuel (most of which is sold as diesel), and four gallons of jet fuel.

More than a dozen other petroleum products are also produced in refineries. Petroleum refineries produce liquids the petrochemical industry uses to make a variety of chemicals and plastics.

Jai Ganesh · 2024-12-15 16:19:08

2278) Refinery/Oil Refinery - II

Gist

What is oil refinery?

Petroleum refineries convert (refine) crude oil into petroleum products for use as fuels for transportation, heating, paving roads, and generating electricity and as feedstocks for making chemicals.

Summary

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha. Petrochemical feedstock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. In 2020, the total capacity of global refineries for crude oil was about 101.2 million barrels per day.

Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units, such as distillation columns. In many ways, oil refineries use many different technologies and can be thought of as types of chemical plants. Since December 2008, the world's largest oil refinery has been the Jamnagar Refinery owned by Reliance Industries, located in Gujarat, India, with a processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels (197,000 m^3) per day.

Oil refineries are an essential part of the petroleum industry's downstream sector.

Details:

"Cracking" Crude Oil

An oil refinery runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and requires a large number of employees. Refineries come offline or stop working for a few weeks each year to undergo seasonal maintenance and other repair work. A refinery can occupy as much land as several hundred football fields. Famous oil refining companies include the Koch Pipeline Company, and many others.

Crack or crack spread is a trading strategy used in energy futures to establish a refining margin. Crack is one primary indicator of oil refining companies' earnings. Crack allows refining companies to hedge against the risks associated with crude oil and those associated with petroleum products. By simultaneously purchasing crude oil futures and selling petroleum product futures, a trader is attempting to establish an artificial position in the refinement of oil created through a spread.

Important : The Nelson Complexity Index (NCI) is a measure of the sophistication of an oil refinery, where more complex refineries are able to produce lighter, more heavily refined and valuable products from a barrel of oil.

The proportions of petroleum products a refinery produces from crude oil can also affect crack spreads. Some of these products include asphalt, aviation fuel, diesel, gasoline, and kerosene. In some cases, the proportion produced varies based on demand from the local market.

The mix of products also depends on the kind of crude oil processed. Heavier crude oils are more difficult to refine into lighter products like gasoline. Refineries that use simpler refining processes may be restricted in their ability to produce products from heavy crude oil.

Refinery Services

Oil refining is a purely downstream function, although many of the companies doing it have midstream and even upstream production. This integrated approach to oil production allows companies like Exxon (XOM), Shell (RDS.A), and Chevron (CVX) to take oil from exploration all the way to sale. The refining side of the business is actually hurt by high prices, because demand for many petroleum products, including gas, is price sensitive. However, when oil prices drop, selling value-added products becomes more profitable. Refining pure plays include Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC), CVR Energy Inc. (CVI), and Valero Energy Corp (VLO).

One area service companies and refiners agree on is creating more pipeline capacity and transport. Refiners want more pipeline to keep down the cost of transporting oil by truck or rail. Service companies want more pipeline because they make money in the design and laying stages, and get a steady income from maintenance and testing.

Oil Refinery Safety

Oil refineries can be dangerous places to work at times. For example, in 2005 there was an accident at BP's Texas City oil refinery. According to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a series of explosions occurred during the restarting of a hydrocarbon isomerization unit. Fifteen workers were killed and 180 others were injured. The explosions occurred when a distillation tower flooded with hydrocarbons and was over-pressurized, causing a geyser-like release from the vent stack.

How Many Oil Refineries Are There in the United States?

As of Jan. 1, 2021, there were 129 operable petroleum refineries in the United States.

U.S. Energy Information Agency. "When was the last refinery built in the United States?"

The last refinery to enter operation was in 2019 in Texas.

How Much Crude Oil Does It Take to Make a Gallon of Gasoline?

One barrel of oil (42 gallons) produces 19 to 20 gallons of gasoline and 11 to 12 gallons of diesel fuel.

What Is the Crack Spread?

In commodities trading, the "crack spread" is the differences in price between a barrel of unrefined crude oil and the refined products (such as gasoline) that are derived from it. Traders look to changes in the crack spread as a market signal for price movements in oil and refined products.

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Additional Information:

How crude oil is refined into petroleum products

Petroleum refineries convert (refine) crude oil into petroleum products for use as fuels for transportation, heating, paving roads, and generating electricity and as feedstocks for making chemicals.

Refining breaks crude oil down into its various components, which are then selectively reconfigured into new products. Petroleum refineries are complex and expensive industrial facilities. All refineries have three basic steps:

* Separation
* Conversion
* Treatment

Separation

Modern separation involves piping crude oil through hot furnaces. The resulting liquids and vapors are discharged into distillation units. All refineries have atmospheric distillation units, but more complex refineries may have vacuum distillation units.

Inside the distillation units, the liquids and vapors separate into petroleum components, called fractions, according to their boiling points. Heavy fractions are on the bottom and light fractions are on the top.

The lightest fractions, including gasoline and liquefied refinery gases, vaporize and rise to the top of the distillation tower, where they condense back to liquids.

Medium weight liquids, including kerosene and distillates, stay in the middle of the distillation tower.

Heavier liquids, called gas oils, separate lower down in the distillation tower, and the heaviest fractions with the highest boiling points settle at the bottom of the tower.

Conversion

After distillation, heavy, lower-value distillation fractions can be processed further into lighter, higher-value products such as gasoline. At this point in the process, fractions from the distillation units are transformed into streams (intermediate components) that eventually become finished products.

The most widely used conversion method is called cracking because it uses heat, pressure, catalysts, and sometimes hydrogen to crack heavy hydrocarbon molecules into lighter ones. A cracking unit consists of one or more tall, thick-walled, rocket-shaped reactors and a network of furnaces, heat exchangers, and other vessels. Complex refineries may have one or more types of crackers, including fluid catalytic cracking units and hydrocracking/hydrocracker units.

Cracking is not the only form of crude oil conversion. Other refinery processes rearrange molecules rather than splitting molecules to add value.

Alkylation, for example, makes gasoline components by combining some of the gaseous byproducts of cracking. The process, which essentially is cracking in reverse, takes place in a series of large, horizontal vessels and tall, skinny towers.

Reforming uses heat, moderate pressure, and catalysts to turn naphtha, a light, relatively low-value fraction, into high-octane gasoline components.

Treatment

The finishing touches occur during the final treatment. To make gasoline, refinery technicians carefully combine a variety of streams from the processing units. Octane level, vapor pressure ratings, and other special considerations determine the gasoline blend.

Storage

Both incoming crude oil and the outgoing final products are stored temporarily in large tanks on a tank farm near the refinery. Pipelines, trains, and trucks carry the final products from the storage tanks to locations across the country.

Jai Ganesh · Yesterday 16:30:38

2279) Training

Gist

Training is the process of learning the skills you need to do a particular job or activity.

Summary

Training is the action of informing or instructing your employees on a certain task in order to help them improve their performance or knowledge. If people are to perform their job to the highest possible standard, they must be effectively and efficiently trained.

Effective training will mean the activities have achieved the specific outcomes required. In addition, your workers need to gain or maintain the skills and knowledge they need to perform their work, direct others to perform work and to supervise work. Lack of training can be attributed to one of the reasons of real quality problems.

Effective training should be cost efficient, while also ensuring that time and money is a good investment.

Details

Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology (also known as technical colleges or polytechnics). In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, training may continue beyond initial competence to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life. People within some professions and occupations may refer to this sort of training as professional development. Training also refers to the development of physical fitness related to a specific competence, such as sport, martial arts, military applications and some other occupations.

Types:

Physical training

Physical training concentrates on mechanistic goals: training programs in this area develop specific motor skills, agility, strength or physical fitness, often with an intention of peaking at a particular time.

In military use, training means gaining the physical ability to perform and survive in combat, and learn the many skills needed in a time of war. These include how to use a variety of weapons, outdoor survival skills, and how to survive being captured by the enemy, among many others.

For psychological or physiological reasons, people who believe it may be beneficial to them can choose to practice relaxation training, or autogenic training, in an attempt to increase their ability to relax or deal with stress. While some studies have indicated relaxation training is useful for some medical conditions, autogenic training has limited results or has been the result of few studies.

Occupational skills training

Some occupations are inherently hazardous, and require a minimum level of competence before the practitioners can perform the work at an acceptable level of safety to themselves or others in the vicinity. Occupational diving, rescue, firefighting and operation of certain types of machinery and vehicles may require assessment and certification of a minimum acceptable competence before the person is allowed to practice as a licensed instructor.

On-job training

Some commentators use a similar term for workplace learning to improve performance: "training and development". There are also additional services available online for those who wish to receive training above and beyond what is offered by their employers. Some examples of these services include career counseling, skill assessment, and supportive services. One can generally categorize such training as on-the-job or off-the-job.

The on-the-job training method takes place in a normal working situation, using the actual tools, equipment, documents or materials that trainees will use when fully trained. On-the-job training has a general reputation as most effective for vocational work. It involves employees training at the place of work while they are doing the actual job. Usually, a professional trainer (or sometimes an experienced and skilled employee) serves as the instructor using hands-on practical experience which may be supported by formal classroom presentations. Sometimes training can occur by using web-based technology or video conferencing tools. On-the-job training is applicable on all departments within an organization.

Simulation based training is another method which uses technology to assist in trainee development. This is particularly common in the training of skills requiring a very high degree of practice, and in those which include a significant responsibility for life and property. An advantage is that simulation training allows the trainer to find, study, and remedy skill deficiencies in their trainees in a controlled, virtual environment. This also allows the trainees an opportunity to experience and study events that would otherwise be rare on the job, e.g., in-flight emergencies, system failure, etc., wherein the trainer can run 'scenarios' and study how the trainee reacts, thus assisting in improving his/her skills if the event was to occur in the real world. Examples of skills that commonly include simulator training during stages of development include piloting aircraft, spacecraft, locomotives, and ships, operating air traffic control airspace/sectors, power plant operations training, advanced military/defense system training, and advanced emergency response training like fire training or first-aid training.

Off-the-job training method takes place away from normal work situations — implying that the employee does not count as a directly productive worker while such training takes place. Off-the-job training method also involves employee training at a site away from the actual work environment. It often utilizes lectures, seminars, case studies, role playing, and simulation, having the advantage of allowing people to get away from work and concentrate more thoroughly on the training itself. This type of training has proven more effective in inculcating concepts and ideas. Many personnel selection companies offer a service which would help to improve employee competencies and change the attitude towards the job. The internal personnel training topics can vary from effective problem-solving skills to leadership training.

A more recent development in job training is the On-the-Job Training Plan or OJT Plan. According to the United States Department of the Interior, a proper OJT plan should include: An overview of the subjects to be covered, the number of hours the training is expected to take, an estimated completion date, and a method by which the training will be evaluated.

Religion and spirituality

In religious and spiritual use, the word "training" may refer to the purification of the mind, heart, understanding and actions to obtain a variety of spiritual goals such as (for example) closeness to God or freedom from suffering. Note for example the institutionalised spiritual training of Threefold Training in Buddhism, meditation in Hinduism or discipleship in Christianity. These aspects of training can be short-term or can last a lifetime, depending on the context of the training and which religious group it is a part of.

Artificial-intelligence feedback

Learning processes developed for artificial intelligence are typically also known as training. Evolutionary algorithms, including genetic programming and other methods of machine learning, use a system of feedback based on "fitness functions" to allow computer programs to determine how well an entity performs a task. The methods construct a series of programs, known as a “population” of programs, and then automatically test them for "fitness", observing how well they perform the intended task. The system automatically generates new programs based on members of the population that perform the best. These new members replace programs that perform the worst. The procedure repeats until the achievement of optimum performance. In robotics, such a system can continue to run in real-time after initial training, allowing robots to adapt to new situations and to changes in themselves, for example, due to wear or damage. Researchers have also developed robots that can appear to mimic simple human behavior as a starting point for training.

Additional Information

Employee training and development includes any activity that helps employees acquire new, or improve existing, knowledge or skills. Training is a formal process by which talent development professionals help individuals improve performance at work. Development is the acquisition of knowledge, skill, or attitude that prepares people for new directions or responsibilities. Training is one specific and common form of employee development; other forms include coaching, mentoring, informal learning, self-directed learning, or experiential learning.

What Are the Benefits of Employee Training and Development?

Employee training and development can help employees become better at their jobs and overcome performance gaps that are based on lack of knowledge or skills. This can help organizations and teams be more productive and obtain improved business outcomes, leading to a competitive advantage over other companies.

Training can help organizations be more innovative and agile in responding to change and can help with necessary upskilling and reskilling to help organizations ensure that their labor force meets their current needs. Employee training and development also can help with succession planning by helping to identify high-performing employees and then assisting those employees with the development of the knowledge and skills they need to advance into more senior roles. Employee training and development can be an effective tool for recruiting and retention, since many employees cite a lack of development opportunities at their current job as a primary reason for leaving. Employees who have access to training and development opportunities are more likely to stay at their organizations for a longer period of time and be more engaged while there; in fact, LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report found that 93 percent of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers. Their 2021 Workplace Leaning Report additionally found that companies with high internal mobility retain employees for twice as long. Finally, some forms of employee training, such as compliance training or safety training, can help organizations avoid lawsuits, workplace injuries, or other adverse outcomes.

What Types of Employee Training and Development Exist?

There are many types of employee training and development. In high performing organizations, training and development initiatives are based on organizational needs, the target audience for the initiative, and the type of knowledge or skill that learners are expected to obtain. Some of the most common types of employee training and development include:

* Technical training is training based on a technical product or task. Technical training if often specifically tailored to a particular job task at a single organization. Skills training is training to help employees develop or practice skills that are necessary for their jobs.
* Soft skills training is a subset of skills training that focuses specifically on soft skills, as opposed to technical or “hard” skills. Soft skills include emotional intelligence, adaptability, creativity, influence, communication, and teamwork. Some trainers refer to soft skills as “power skills” or “professional life skills” to emphasize their importance.
* Compliance training is training on actions that are mandated by a law, agency, or policy outside the organization’s purview. Compliance training is often industry-specific but may include topics such as cybersecurity and sexual harassment.
* Safety training is training that focuses on improving organizational health and safety and reducing workplace injury. It can encompass employee safety, workplace safety, customer safety, and digital and information safety. Safety training can include both training that is required by law and training that organizations offer without legally being required to do so.
* Management development focuses on providing managers with the knowledge and skills that they need to be effective managers and developers of talent. Topics may include accountability, collaboration, communication, engagement, and listening and assessing.
* Leadership development is any activity that increases an individual’s leadership ability or an organization’s leadership capability, including activities such as learning events, mentoring, coaching, self-study, job rotation, and special assignments to develop the knowledge and skills required to lead.
* Executive development provides senior leaders and executives with the knowledge and skills that they need to improve in their roles. In contrast to leadership development, which focuses on helping non-executive employees develop the skills they need to obtain a leadership position, executive development is targeted at people already at a leadership level within their organization.
* Customer service training focuses on providing employees with the knowledge and skills to provide exceptional customer service. Customer service training should include content on essential employee behaviors, service strategies, and service systems.
* Customer education training is when employees—often at technology or SaaS companies—teach customers how to use a company’s products and services. Customer education training differs from traditional employee learning and development because the intended audience is customers, not employees.
* Workforce training focuses on upskilling workers to help them obtain career success. Workforce training programs are often offered by federal, state, or local governments, or by nonprofit organizations. Workforce training may include job-specific content but also may include content on organizational culture, leadership skills, and professionalism. Workforce training is often accessed by people who are new to the workforce or who are trying to enter a new job type or industry.
* Corporate training focuses on helping workers already employed by an organization obtain new knowledge and skills. That company or organization offers training to their internal employees to help them become better at their current jobs, advance in their careers, or close organizational skill gaps.
* Onboarding sometimes known as new employee orientation, is the process through which organizations equip new employees with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed at their jobs.
* Sales enablement is the strategic and cross functional effort to increase the productivity of market-facing teams by providing ongoing and relevant resources throughout the buyer journey to drive business impact. It encompasses sales training, coaching, content creation, process improvement, talent development, and compensation, among other areas.

What Are Examples of Effective Employee Training Methods?

There are many types of employee training and development methods, including:

* Instructor-led training, which can be either in-person or virtual.
* In-person training refers to training in which the instructor is physically in the same room as the learners. This also may be referred to as face-to-face training or classroom training.
* Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) refers to instructor-led training that occurs virtually when the instructor and learners are physically dispersed. VILT takes place through a virtual platform such as Zoom or Webex. VILT also may be referred to as synchronous e-learning, live-online training, synchronous online training, or virtual classroom training
* E-learning is a structured course or learning experience delivered electronically. E-learning can be either asynchronous or synchronous. Asynchronous e-learning is self-paced and may include pre-recorded lecture content and video, visuals and/or text, knowledge quizzes, simulations, games, and other interactive elements.
* Microlearning enhances learning and performance through short pieces of content. Microlearning assets can usually be accessed on-demand when the learner needs them. Common forms of microlearning include how-to videos, self-paced e-learning, games, blogs, job aids, podcasts, infographics, and other visuals.
* Simulation is a broad genre of experiences, including games for entertainment and immersive learning simulations for formal learning programs. Simulations use simulation elements to model and present situations; portraying actions and demonstrating how the actions affect relevant systems, and how those systems produce feedback and results.
* On-the-job training is a delivery system that dispenses training to employees as they need it. As opposed to sending an employee away from work to a training session, on-the-job training allows employees to learn while in the flow of work.
* Coaching is a discipline that helps to enhance individual, team, and organizational performance. Coaching is an interactive process that involves listening, asking powerful questions, strengthening conversations, and creating action plans, with the goal of helping individuals develop towards their preferred future state.
* Mentoring is a reciprocal and collaborative at-will relationship that most often occurs between a senior and junior employee for the purpose of the mentee’s growth, learning, and career development. Mentors often act as role models for their mentee and provide guidance to help them reach their goals.
* Blended learning refers to a training program that includes more than one of the training types referenced above. Traditionally blended learning most often includes a mix of in-person training and e-learning. However, it can refer to any combination of formal and informal learning events, such as classroom instruction, online resources, and on-the-job coaching.

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Jai Ganesh · Today 16:23:44

2280) Waterbed

Gist

Waterbeds reduce back problems, help asthma sufferers and have many benefits that are good for your health. Many conditions - including that of perfect health - will derive benefit from a waterbed, as members of the medical profession have long acknowledged.

Summary

This is an unique mattress that is specifically meant to prevent bed-ridden patients from developing bed sores. The water bed also dons an elegant look and ensures maximum comfort. Water beds are proven to help you sleep better, reduce back problems effectively, help asthma sufferers, and have many other benefits that are good for your health. The principles of flotation have been documented to be especially helpful with the following conditions: premature infants and newborns, orthopedic problems, paralysis, severe burns, trauma, auto accidents, plastic surgery, general surgery, cardiac rehabilitation, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and wheelchair patients. Water beds have become an essential therapeutic fixture in benefiting many patients with different medical problems.

Waterbed can bring relief from pain and provide a cool and soothing sensation. Product features Medical Water Bed (Water mattress). This bed is used by the patients who are to lie on the bed for a long time. The patient with broken legs, waist, coma, cerebral attack, heart patient, arthritis patient who cannot move etc. use. As constantly lying in the same position results in pressure and abrasion in particular places of the body for a long time gives rise to the possibilities of developing sores in those parts of the body. By using this bed the possibility of developing bed sores is eliminated. Waterbed can bring relief from pain and provide a cool and soothing sensation. It is a single textured rubberized fabric having 3 compartments. It is completely leak proof, comfortable, hygienic and durable.

Details

A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in 1971, became a popular consumer item in the United States through the 1980s with up to 20% of the market in 1986 and 22% in 1987. By 2013, they accounted for less than 5% of new bed sales.

Construction

Waterbeds primarily consist of two types, hard-sided beds and soft-sided beds.

A hard-sided waterbed consists of a water-containing mattress inside a rectangular frame of wood resting on a plywood deck that sits on a platform.

A soft-sided waterbed consists of a water-containing mattress inside of a rectangular frame of sturdy foam, zippered inside a fabric casing, which sits on a platform. It looks like a conventional bed and is designed to fit existing bedroom furniture. The platform usually looks like a conventional foundation or box spring, and sits atop a reinforced metal frame.

Early waterbed mattresses, and many inexpensive modern mattresses, have a single water chamber. When the water mass in these "free flow" mattresses is disturbed, significant wave motion can be felt, and they need time to stabilize after a disturbance. Later models employed wave-reducing methods, including fiber batting. Some models only partially reduce wave motion, while more expensive models almost eliminate wave motion.

Water beds are normally heated. If no heater is used, the water will equalize with the room air temperature (around 70 °F). In models with no heater, there are at least several inches of insulation above the water chamber. This partially eliminates the body-contouring benefit of a waterbed, and the ability to control the bed temperature. For these reasons, most waterbeds have temperature control systems. Temperature is controlled via a thermostat and set to personal preference, most commonly around average skin temperature, 30 °C (86 °F). A typical heating pad consumes 150–400 watts of power. Depending on insulation, bedding, temperature, use, and other factors, electricity usage may vary significantly.

Waterbeds are usually constructed from soft polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or similar material. They can be repaired with practically any vinyl repair kit.

Types of waterbed mattresses

* Free flow mattress: Also known as a full wave mattress. It contains only water but no baffles or inserts.
* Semi-waveless mattress: Contains a few fiber inserts and/or baffles to control the water motion and increase support.
* Waveless mattress: Contains many layers of fiber inserts and/or baffles to control the water motion and increase support. Frequently, the better mattresses contain additional layers in the center third of the mattress called special lumbar support.

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#2376 2024-12-13 16:49:25

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